Their choice of opponent wasn't exactly intelligent, either, but the Nets don't exactly have that kind of influence in the league. If they did, their best option would be to request a bye week.

They were never in the game last night, but since they were the only form of NBA entertainment (term used loosely) available opposite the Ice Bowl in Green Bay, they were contractually obligated to be embarrassed in the city that will be the host for the Giants' next game.

Embarrassment looks like this: Suns 116, Nets 92.

But if only it were that close.

Pick any guy dressed in white, and he was quicker, sharper, and better than any guy in red. And defensively, the Nets came apart early and stayed that way.

"I don't know," Boki Nachbar said after his team's fifth straight loss. "I think we just have to put more pride into it, and everybody has to step up individually -- it's that simple. I think there's no scheme we're doing wrong; there's no rule that defensively you say it's a bad rule. We're just not executing. We're not there for each other, that's what's hurting us right now."

Or, as Jefferson suggested, they never showed.

The Nets fell down by 35-20 after one quarter at US Airways Center, and never again got back to within single digits, save for 16 seconds in the third quarter.

The four primary reasons were these: Shawn Marion posted a double-double (16 and 11, plus five steals), Boris Diaw posted a double-double (14 and 10), and Amare Stoudemire and Steve Nash finished one rebound and one assist short, respectively, of their own double-doubles.

And the real star of the game, Raja Bell, shot the lights out from downtown, hitting five from the arc to help put the game away early.

There was nothing to match that firepower. Vince Carter was 4-for-13. Kidd had six turnovers. Marcus Williams, who was a spark in L.A. the night before, was 1-for-6.

Only Jefferson, who was a game-time decision with a sore hip, had a game going (24 points, 8-for-16). But even he couldn't keep with Marion, Diaw and Bell when the game got away early.

After missing four jumpers to open the game, the Suns hit seven of their next eight shots -- two by Bell from downtown -- to jump to a 19-10 lead midway through the first period. By quarter's end, the Suns were in a perfect offensive rhythm, Nash and Marion had knocked down 3s, and the gap had stretched to 35-20.

And when Barbosa hit a 3-pointer to open the second period, the Suns were on their way to an early knockout.

"We didn't really give ourselves a chance -- especially on the road, defensively you have to be a whole lot better," coach Lawrence Frank said.

"That 35-point first quarter, we had a hard time matching up in transition. So we had to play small the rest of the game to be better in transition defense. They basically were able to go where they wanted to go, they made extra hustle plays, 17 offensive rebounds, shot 41 percent from 3 (12-for-29), took us off the dribble ..."

That about covered it.

For the finer details:

"Pounded us," was Josh Boone's first assessment of the team's defensive breakdowns. "There were a lot of them. The one thing you have to do with that team is talk, because there's always going to be different matchups. A lot of times, big men can be guarding Steve Nash in transition. We have to talk the matchups out and figure out where to go. We didn't do well enough at that."

Or anything else, other than shoot. Put it this way: At the end of the third period, the Nets were at exactly 50 percent. But they were also trailing by 16 points, because the Suns had knocked down 11 3-pointers by then.

"We got it to nine at one point in the third, but we just couldn't get a stop," Kidd said. "They're a very good team, and they just kept going. We had some great looks. We didn't knock them down, but we didn't get any stops on the other end. That reflected in the score."